In the U.S. Pat. No. 3,926,637 of Bartolini et al incorporated herein by reference, is disclosed organic volume phase holographic recording media which are useful to store holograms in permanent form. Such media comprise certain light sensitive .alpha.-diketones in an acrylic polyester resin, which .alpha.-diketones are capable of hydrogen atom abstraction with the polymer hosts during recording. Such reaction is irreversible and these media thus can be used as high density information storage media which are simple and relatively inexpensive to make.
One problem that has become apparent in the use of these recording media is that during readout, when a coherent light reference beam is passed through the medium, a certain amount of spurious light scattering occurs. This results in distortion of the readout image due to the interference of the readout beam with the different image beam. This light scattering cannot be erased because it is due to a continuing irreversible photochemical reaction in the medium. Thus a method of preventing further photochemical reaction in the recording medium after recording, particularly during readout, is highly desirable.